We all know "voice" when we hear it in writing, but how do we teach students to use it? There are some specific tools of voice that help a piece of writing sound personal, like the author is standing there talking to us. Those tools will come in handy when writing persuasive pieces for the NJASK (or any other time).

Here are some of those tools and examples of each.

Using conversational phrases: "Believe it or not..." "Can you believe it?" "Let me tell you something..." "I guess you could say..." "That's crazy, isn't it?" "Look..." "Listen..." "Oh, right..." "I'm just saying..." Tap into the phrases you hear your students use, and teach them to use the best ones in their persuasive pieces.

Punctuation: Exclamation marks, ellipses and parentheses go a long way toward conveying voice.